What People are Saying

Valerie Gentner, 2014-2015 BA in Psychology The University of Akron | Class of 2015

“Working with the Emotions & Aging Lab at the University of Akron was an enjoyable experience that allowed me to grow as a professional. I first began my work with the lab as a research assistant (RA) during the summer of 2014 and continued up to spring of 2015, when I graduated. In this time, I have learned much about experimental research through my hands-on experience with various projects. I worked most closely with Dr. Jennifer Stanley and Halley Cooper-Shumway on a study assessing emotion recognition differences among younger and older adults. Once trained, I was able to run the experiment independently and conduct assessments. In this lab, I have had numerous opportunities to learn and utilize skills outside of the classroom. The weekly lab meetings consisted of constructive discussions, which have undoubtedly contributed to my development. In addition, other members were very knowledgeable and approachable. I suspect both the support I received and invaluable applied research experience have prepared me well for graduate studies. I highly recommend joining the Emotions & Aging Lab!”

Steven Nicholas Porter, 2013-2015 BA in Psychology | Minor in Statistics The University of Akron | Class of 2015

“I had Dr. Stanley for the undergraduate required Research Methods in Psychology class the spring semester of my sophomore year. While in the class I heard about her research on emotions over the lifespan. Her passion and seriousness drew me to ask her if I could be apart of her lab on campus. From here I got the full experience in thinking about and performing research in psychology. I got extensive experience using SPSS to clean and manipulate data, as well as using it to create new variables. I got experience in how to run participants in a professional and seamless manner that makes these people eager to come back and participate again. I was even trained in how to use E-Prime to create and manipulate new experiments that we used in different projects. The time that I enjoyed the most in the lab though was that spent in our lab meeting going over literature that we had been given to look over on our own. Even though I was only an undergraduate research assistant, my own thoughts and ideas were welcomed and entertained. I could participate and feel like I was involved in how we collectively interpreted another’s work. This is my favorite part of the whole research process, and Dr. Stanley’s lab was a great opportunity to speak with like-minded individuals. The topics that we researched were rather broad; Dr. Stanley gives her graduate students some freedom in what they would like to pursue interest-wise. This is what I can say is the definitive reason to get involved in her lab. You can get experience working with cognitive measures and methods that deal with topics as broad as looking at implicit learning to relationship studies; just by changing up what graduate student you work for, all under the amazing guidance of Dr. Stanley.”